Online Fiction

Everyone thought it was just a hijacking. They were wrong. It was a skyheist! In aviation's golden age of the 1960s, a late arriving passenger boards a TWA 727 minutes before departure. However, this passenger is not what he seems. As the plane is taxiing out for takeoff, the new arrival brandishes a gun. Everyone present is now part of a hijacking. Working with the authorities, the flight crew is successful in safely evacuating the passengers. However, the hijacker is equally successful in forcing the plane into the sky. Destination: Cuba.

Darkness comes to Sidmouth, when, unable to cope after a devastating tragedy, late-night radio talk show host Edward Temmis is let go from his beloved job. Cast adrift, his outlook is bleak – until he meets Stevie, whose grandmother, a devoted listener, died in a suspicious fire last year. Well, nobody hurts his listeners and helping Stevie might just give him the purpose he needs. When their investigation stalls, they enlist local estate agent Kim, with whom Edward had a doomed fling last year. Working together, they discover Stevie’s grandmother wasn’t the only one of his listeners targeted.

After spending ten years in a maximum-security prison, JJ gets unexpected parole and a job on a Canadian ranch serving up scrumptious dinners and lots of hot love to three of the sexiest cowboys she’s ever met. Jennifer Jane “JJ” Watson has never been happier. She’s managed to cope with her anxiety issues, and she's going to have a baby!

Eric McCaffrey has been playing Zag in the VR-MMOFPS Battlegrounds Online for a while now. The more he plays, the more entrenched into the game he gets. It hardly even feels like a game anymore. Zag, now one of the commandos for the Knights of the Tactical Operations Group, is tasked with freeing Punta del Muerta from the terrorist group Wyvern. Along with the rest of the Knights, Zag will dive deep into the jungles, war-torn cities, and concrete bunkers, but will he be able to complete all the missions in time?

Arriving in a tide of blood and horror, a forgotten cult from the depths of the ocean has laid waste to the once glorious city of Sehkem and scattered its people throughout the empire.

A dangerous evolution in the game threatens Devrim's new life. NPC monsters are rallying. And they have one Beast Queen bent on ruling them all! In the months since the Goblin King's defeat, Devrim has settled into a peaceful existence in the now prosperous village of New Haven. But prosperity invites challenge, and challenge creates chaos. And the world of Lorian is about to be tipped into war that it may never recover from.

With his glory days behind him and nothing but life as a loser to look forward to, Zane can’t wait for MythRune. A first-of-its-kind immersive fantasy game that promises to provide just the escape from reality a washed-up athlete like him needs. But when his younger brother learns he only has weeks left to live, Zane is forced to take his gaming to the next level if he’s going to afford to pay for his brother’s operation and ditch their sorry life forever.

A freak accident leaves childhood friends Aiden and Scarlet dead and stranded in Hazard Online, a VR MMORPG. They're pushed to the brink of their sanity as they awaken with the knowledge of their death and are thrust into an experimental expansion, which only further threatens to tear them apart.

As Murmur reels in the wake of the secret her friends tried to keep, her grip on what is real and what is virtual begins to slip. What's more, she's no longer sure whom she can trust. Stalked across the continent by a rogue with a vendetta, Murmur is forced to dig deep and develop her abilities before she finds a knife in her back. Suspicion surrounds the AIs as well. Their behaviors are too human, their reports too perfect. Shayla and Laria must uncover the truth before the system raises concerns and Murmur is lost forever.

Living in a virtual game world sounds like the ultimate dream. Plenty of action, intrigue, and guess who gets to be the big hero? But what happens when that digital reality gets flipped on its head? Bad guys are after your sweet loot, your fancy title is loaded with unrealistic expectations, and achieving such a high level comes with a big fat target on your back. Something has to give, so when a new crusader faction rolls into town, Talon senses an opportunity.

Tad Lonnerman is having a crappy day stuck in crappy traffic late to a crappy meeting. On the bright side, his game development career is the only non-crappy thing he has going for him, so life isn't all bad. At least until he dies. Now Tad finds himself uploaded to a beta test of Haven, an unannounced hyper-immersive MMO where the dead have a second chance at life. It's not virtual reality, it's digital reality. A true afterlife online. Except Haven isn't exactly blissful paradise.

Kevin Matthews, a ten-year air force vet and PVP VR player, is dead. Whether it was murder or by accident, it no longer matters to him. You deal with what’s in front of you. He has now been reborn as an Orc in the VRMMO Avarice Online. Here, he must prove himself among the ranks of Ulgo Clan of orcs. Lead his lost clan-mates through the deep dark of the Undercaverns back home. Then claim a class of his own.

Jazmine goes to summer tennis camp without really wanting to. Sports are just not her thing. Still, she's happy to find her best friend Blanca at the same camp. Even more than that, she discovers she can play pretty well. Now she faces a more important challenge. On the Line is one of five high interest quick listening stories in the Sports Beats series. These fiction stories weave characters' real-life issues around the sports they play: Basketball, baseball, tennis, skiing, and soccer.

Twenty-something David Gould's girlfriend just left him, he's faced with an impossible book deadline, he's obsessed with the online blog of a 22-year-old woman who calls herself Miss Misery, and a 17-year-old girl has a crush on him. If that's not enough, his cooler, hipper online self is soon co-opted by a hacker who threatens to ruin his life.

Karna was just like any other comic book fan. He dreamed of fighting alongside colourful heroes and taking down dastardly villains. In Titan Online, the most popular VR MMORPG going, he finally got the chance to live out his cape-donning fantasies. That is, right up until he was killed by the game’s number one ‘hero’. A man who serves only himself in a constant grind for money, fame and adoration. Forced to start from scratch due the harsh game mechanics, Karna finds a new mission: bringing balance back to Titan Online.

I don't want to settle down with some Alpha-born pup my father chooses. As the firstborn daughter to an Alpha, I know my life goal should be becoming a Luna and birthing new Alphas, but all I want is to join the Werewolf Guard. I want to kick some evil supernatural ass and protect the people I love, not create the next generation of entitled little Alpha pups.

Headshot has just gone live and the whole world's playing the new Artificial Reality blockbuster. Unfortunately, unless you can buy your way onto the Survivor's side, you can only participate as a Zombie. Each week, the forces gather to tear each other down to the bone...until, at week's end, the Apocalypse is reset. Ryan's played the Beta for months, but now that his favorite game has launched, he finds it consuming his life - even as he struggles to decipher whether or not there's actually a way to succeed if you're not willing to Pay to Win.

Antonious King has been selected to beta-test what promises to be the best VR MMO of 2038. As one of three hundred in the "Ascendant Program" he'll take part in a bloody civil war between the King of the Gods, Ignacious and the God-Hero Auren, granted powerful relics, artifacts, and a near-immortal body. What's the catch? There's no Logging out. There is no game.

Fifteen-year-old Ella Carmichael gave her killer all the information he needed to find her. Now her sister has vowed to protect others from doing the same, while she hunts down this online predator.

What if your phone truly helped you connect with the people more than disconnect with those around you? Author and youth-culture expert, Jonathan McKee, and his daughter Alyssa McKee, uncover 40 random realizations they've discovered over the last five years. Screens provide fun platforms to connect with faraway friends; and sometimes the people we love the most are the people we ignore all day. Jonathan and Alyssa help young adults navigate face-to-face communication in a screen-to-screen world.